Saturday Night Slam Masters

Saturday Night Slam Masters (Muscle Bomber in Japan) was a 1993 arcade game, which was ported to the SNES and Sega Genesis home consoles in 1994. It is the first game in the Slam Masters series. The game was updated and retitled "Muscle Bomber Duo"and followed by a sequel, Ring of Destruction: Slam Masters II. The game features character designs by Tetsuo Hara, known for his work on the famous Fist of the North Star manga series.

Story

Professional wrestling experienced a sudden increase in popularity during the early 1980s, where many professional wrestling organizations were started all over the world. A severe rivalry existed among the organizations.

In order to resolve this conflict, 8 organizations combined to form the Capcom Professional Wrestling Association (CPWA), led by Victor Ortega, the CPWA’s first champion.

One day, Ortega suddenly vanished. He was considered to be the axis of the sport and his unexpected disappearance caused the CPWA to enter an age of confusion and disorder. The BPWA, a dark underground wrestling organization, chose to take advantage of this opportunity and began moving. With "Fighters of Muscle Bomber = Destiny" as the theme, the CPWA chief executives decided to hold a world tour called the “Crash Carnival,” to decide the new king of the CPWA.

The gong that determines the new “Master of Muscle Bomber” is sounded…

Gameplay

The first game (and Muscle Bomber Duo) was played like a traditional wrestling game, only it used a view similar to that commonly used in the fighting game genre. Each character was given a lifebar and had three buttons to push (an attack button, a jump button, and a pin button).

Each character was also given two special attacks to use in the game (one used normally outside of a grapple and one that was performed during a grapple, commonly known as a finisher). When an opponent's life is depleted, he must either be pinned for a three-count or forced to submit. Defeating all of the other wrestlers results in winning the championship belt, which must then be defended against the entire roster.

Muscle Bomber Duo

Muscle Bomber Duo is a Japan-only update of Saturday Night Slam Masters. It was never ported to home consoles.

"To decide who will enter the Team Battle Royal as Number One, the "Heat Up Scramble" is held! Which team will be titled the strongest?"

Gameplay

Other than being a very minor upgrade (like some of the Street Fighter games revisions), Muscle Bomber Duo actually did feature some changes from the original game. Now, instead of walking into an opponent and automatically grabbing him, the player had to press the grapple button (previously known as the pin button) at the right moment.

The player could either play the game with three other people, or with a CPU-controlled partner against another team.